David Sullivan amassed his $1.2 billion fortune from adult films and magazines. Now, he runs West Ham with his wife, an actress in the industry and 17 years his junior.
More than $40 million dollars made Edson Álvarez change his career. The Mexican will now play for West Ham of the English Premier League, whose owner has a very particular history, because before being the owner of this club, he was dedicated to the entertainment industry and was even under the bars.
David Sullivan became one of West Ham’s owners in 2010, after his departure three years earlier from Birmingham City. However, in 2023 he would become a majority shareholder after the death of business partner David Gold.
Since joining the Premier League club he has been the subject of controversy for his past in the adult film industry, where he met his wife Emma Benton-Hugues, who currently serves as a director of the London club.
Sullivan was born in Cardiff, capital of Wales, in 1949. It was during the 1960s that he decided to invest in the XXX film business. That was where he amassed much of his fortune before moving into soccer.
By the late 1970s he also controlled half of the UK adult magazine market, including major titles such as Playbirds and Whitehouse.
The 74-year-old businessman is known in the UK as the “king of the adult training industry”. Years ago, when Margaret Thatcher was in office, the suicide of one of the actresses on his payroll, Mary Millington, with whom he was reportedly in a relationship, forced him behind bars.
His current wife is 17 years younger and he met her when she was shooting pornographic films. Eve Vorley (the name she had in the industry), 57, was an adult actress from 1990 until the 2000s. Now, with a personal fortune valued at more than $1 million dollars, she participates with her husband, son and brother in the club’s organizational chart. The latter has been in charge of managing the women’s team since 2017.
According to a report by The Sunday Times Rich List in 2019, Sullivan’s fortune amounts to $1.2 billion. Now, Edson Alvarez will try his luck under this new leadership after four seasons in the Netherlands.